Schema or Google Video Sitemap

[TommySwanson52]

Hey.

I have a few hundred pages with videos on them. I want to have rich snippets with the thumbnail and such in the search results.

Should I focus my time on Schema or building out a solid sitemap?

Your feedback is appreciated!

Tommy Swanson

[AU-SEO]

I would focus your time on schema as it will likely deliver the most long term value. Are your videos hosted internally or externally on Vimeo or YouTube?

[TommySwanson52]

Hosted externally with Vimeo.

[CraigBradford]

Hi Tommy,

It's good to see you are thinking about Schema.org, it's here to stay.

Anyway to answer your question, it doesn't need to be one or the other. You can add schema to your page and use a video sitemap.

If you just want the video thumbnail to show up in the SERPS, using like Vimeo or Wistia should be sufficient. If you want to go even further, you could mark it up with Schema.org as follows: (this is an example from the website: http://schema.org/VideoObject

<div< span="">itemprop="video" itemscope</div<>

itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject">

Video: <span< span="">itemprop="name">Interview with the Foo

Fighters</span<>

<meta< span="">itemprop="duration" content="T1M33S" /></meta<>

<meta< span="">itemprop="thumbnail"</meta<>

content="foo-fighters-interview-thumb.jpg" />

<object< span="">...></object<>

<param< span="">...></param<>

<embed< span="">type="application/x-shockwave-flash" ...></embed<>

<span< span="">itemprop="description">Catch this exclusive interview</span<>

with Dave Grohl and the Food Fighters about their new album,

Rope.

Why not run tests? First you could add the video sitemap using Vimeo, let it get indexed and make sure the thumbnail is showing in the SERPS. You could then add a different title, description etc using schema and see which Google prefers. Alternatively, you could add both, for example, add 5 videos using Vimeo then another 5 using Schema.org markup. It would be interesting to see if Google display the Schema results as video thumbnails.

If that sounds like too much work, I would just go with the Vimeo video sitemap rather than schema because we know it works.

I hope this helps.

Craig

@CraigBradford